Shore Lines or Tapes

[grumpygit]

For stern mooring to (not ports) shore, rocks, trees or whatever. What do people prefer mostly? Floaty lines, tapes (Ancharolina) or just docking lines. I ask the question because we are going to invest in something. Quality of the product as in strength, the uv resistance and ease of use, all this would be good to know. Any advice would be interesting as it's not something we've done before. Bear in mind that we weigh circa 28 tonnes and there is only the two of us . . . I tell a lie, once with 25mm docking line, phew!

 

[B&M]

We have both on board, but the tape is always the first line ashore as it is easy to swim with it and very easy to paddle ashore. Our boat though is half your weight and you would require a far heavier tape than mine. Personanlly I find a tape very useful in the med and would certainly recommend them. I am seriously considering a second one as they take up far less space for the equivalent 50m rope.

 

[vyv_cox]

Floating line offers some advantages. Ours are not floating and we sometimes have problems when they snag underwater rocks, etc. I know of several owners who have 100 metres of polypropylene on a reel on the pushpit, which seems like a good system but will not fit on our pushpit. Tape reels such as Ankarolina are undoubtedly very compact and used by many, although I note several complaints that the tape can be very noisy as it thrums in a wind. There is some info on my website, under Anchoring>lines ashore.

 

[crisjones]

Webbing is available from http://www.ribbons.co.uk/ at surprisingly cheap prices. I paid around £80 for 200m of 50mm, 5000kgs webbing although it was a few years ago. It is well worth contacting them to ask about pricing and they are able to supply a big range of sizes and breaking strains - you may need around 10,000 kgs rating for your 28t of boat. I recall that they were very helpful and will answer all the questions raised in your OP.

Webbing is much less bulky than equivalent strength rope and will roll easily onto a reel or drum, also easier to handle to get it ashore etc. The whistling / drumming in the wind is a potential problem but usually only happens when the webbing is quite tight, letting out some slack so the webbing is partly in the water will stop the problem.

I would think 2 x 100m lengths would be OK for you, 28t is obviously a fairly large boat so storage should not be too much of an issue, also your draft may mean you are further away from shore than smaller boats.

 

[RupertW]

Nasty cheap 12mm floating blue line for us. £25 for two hundred metres when we bought it last year.

Divided it into 2 x 100m and we generally attach both - either at very wide angle (which i prefer) if other boats are doing the same as we can't be the only one moving about. Otherwise at a very small angle from either quarter so on the day that one rope breaks the other will be there.

If it lasts 2 or 3 years I'll be very happy.

 

[Relax]

I always wondered how folks tension or cleat off the tapes at the pushpit end?

 

[Marsupial]

recent purchase in Fethiye, 63 mtrs 18mm octoplait floating line 110TL about £36, (sold by weight) cheap as chips. The same stuff sold by length two doors along was over 5 Euro per metre, they think its flash to price in euro's.

But its floating line and I hope it will last a season.

Why 63mtrs? I bought the lot.

Tapes are OK very strong and easy to stow on a spool and we were in the market for some until we heard it in a blow.

 

[grumpygit]

Thanks guys for your replies and advice. I'll look further into tapes and see what size I would need and then compare the merits of each. I do like the idea of tapes though, especially stowage wise and the lightness to deploy. A thought about the noise from tapes, if they spiralled to some degree instead of being flat would you think this would reduce the noise?

 

[duncan99210]

We use some old climbing ropes from my son - they have a breaking strain of about 5,000 kg and are quite stretchy. We keep them in a couple bags made of ripstop nylon. We take them ashore, make fast to suitable rocks/trees and then take them out in the dinghy, fasten them to a fender and drop the dinghy grapple over the side, then return to boat. Drop anchor and reverse up on to the fender, pick it up and you're moored.

 

[B&M]

In most of the med the wind drops off at night during the summer and noise is not an issue. The big benefit with the tapes spiraling is that rats can't climb along them to your boat.